March 10 – Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, announces his intention to stand down from his official powers, and to transfer them to an elected official.

March 11 – An earthquake of magnitude 9.1 strikes near Sendai on the east coast of the island of Honshu, Japan, causing a lot of damage and triggering tsunamis, with warnings issued around the Pacific Ocean. Thousands of people have been killed, and thousands more are missing. A heavy nuclear accident was also result of the earthquake, prompting fears over radiation levels.

June 5 – Yemen's PresidentAli Abdullah Saleh leaves for Saudi Arabia to be treated for injuries sustained in an attack on the Presidential Palace. Demonstrators celebrate while powers are temporarily transferred to Vice President Abd al-Rab al-Mansur al-Hadi.

June 12 – Thousands of Syrians flee into Turkey as Syrian troops lay siege to the town of Jisr-ash Shugur.

July 31 – Because of uncertainties over a clampdown on press freedom, there is believed to be at least 121 people killed in a Syrian army tank raid on the town of Hama, and over 150 people are reportedly killed in a crackdown in the whole country.

In K. A. Applegate's Remnants book series, 2011 is the year life on Earth becomes extinct after a 73-mile-wide asteroid nicknamed "The Rock" impacts Portugal. Eighty other humans are placed in a shuttle named the Mayflower mere hours before impact and put into artificial hibernation, while a handful of humans in shelters survive the impact on Earth.